Our History

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Wednesday, 12 November 2025

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Our History

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of the Commonwealth Games baton making its way through Warragul in August 1982. Chris Bridger is captured carrying the baton along Smith St alongside Sue-Ellen Goyne who earlier accepted the baton from her father Mike. Accompanying them...

Fabulous fifties on display

To celebrate History Month in October, Warragul and District Historical Society has been hosting a month-long exhibition celebrating The Fabulous Fifties. The society’s emphasis on the fifties is in keeping with the state-wide “living history” theme...

Looking back to the fabulous fifties

October is History Month, and the Warragul and District Historical Society is marking the occasion with a month-long exhibition celebrating The Fabulous Fifties. The society’s emphasis on the fifties is in keeping with the state-wide “living history”...

The wreck of Tommy Norton

He was not named Tommy Norton, but that was what the people around the Gippsland Lakes called him. Officially, he was registered as PS T. Norton, but he also was listed as the PS Thomas Norton. The PS means he was a paddle steamer. The T means that...

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of Robert Morton’s draper and outfitter business in Drouin in the 1880s. Robert Arthur Morton took over the Main St business in 1883 from Joseph Toole, who had run a grocery store. Mr Morton came from Hawthorn where he had a drapery shop...

Snapshot of the past

An undated photograph of sheep grazing in a paddock in the middle of Drouin. The sheep are grazing on land on the corner of Young St and Hope St, approximately where McDonalds is now. The brick and timber buildings at the top of the hill are in...

Cemetery records presented to Trust

In celebration of family history month, West Gippsland Genealogical Society recently presented Drouin Cemetery Trust with five books detailing records and research of the cemetery. The society transcribed the cemetery headstones starting in March...

New leader for historical society

Warragul and District Historical Society elected Wayne Hardie as president at its recent annual general meeting. The meeting was well attended with more than 30 members and guest Baw Baw Shire Cr Suzanne Allen. In her final report, outgoing president...

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of the dedication ceremony for the Longwarry war memorial in 1919. The first public meeting to discuss the welcoming home of returning soldiers to the Longwarry district was held in 1917, according to local newspaper reports. It followed...

The Sale canal

Sale was at first called Flooding Creek, an apt description as much as a name. From the time when Archibald McIntosh built the first ‘house’ in Sale, the Bridge Inn, Sale developed as the de facto capital of Gippsland. Gippsland’s only port at the...

Snapshot of the past

A photograph capturing a group of Warragul Apex Club volunteers in action in Burke St Park, Warragul in 1967. The photograph, taken in December, captured the Warragul Apexians digging foundations for an undercover barbecue area. This commenced the...

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of Gazette linotype operator Mr W. Boyak during a student tour of the Gazette building in 1967. Warragul North Primary School students are captured touring the Gazette office in Queen St, Warragul to see all different sections...

Changing needs of the Gippsland Track

The Gippsland Track has grown and matured, shifting and changing to meet changing needs. National Route 1 was identified and listed officially in 1955. In 2004 VicRoads listed the Princes Highway East as Arterial Road 6510. It has several names even...

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of busy Williams St in Warragul from November 1967. Taken from the Regent Theatre building, the photograph was taken to illustrate the crowded thoroughfare often referred to as Williams Lane. However, it hasn’t been officially Williams...

Tracks winding through Gippsland

The Old Sale Road, as the Gippsland Track became known, a name which seems to have been used from about 1878 when the railway was coming through Gippsland, was a new route created to follow the line, and the railway lines were carefully surveyed to...

Travelling the Gippsland track

Gippsland was first entered by white people down the Tambo Valley and on to the Gippsland Lakes. From 1835 there were squatters in the Omeo district, and they gradually extended their use of the land down that valley. We’ve talked about that...

The hole beside our road

We have been really lucky this year, in Quamby Rd. We have had two official holes down at the other end, where there is bitumen. The hole men seem to prefer places where there is that black bit in the middle of the road. Let me say at the outset that...

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of the Longwarry Scout Hall in Collett St c1969. The town once had a prolific scout pack, producing no less than five Queen Scouts. However, it is the story of the community banding together to build this scout hall which stands...

Old dogs and good mates

It is the night of January 15. More correctly, it is 30 minutes into January 16, and I am sitting on the roofed deck at the back of my house listening to the grumbling thunder, enjoying the lightning and enjoying even more the sound of the occasion...